Digimon Xros Wars: Toki wo Kakeru Shounen Hunter-tachi

Digimon Xros Wars: Toki wo Kakeru Shounen Hunter-tachi takes place one year after the defeat of Bagramon and company. Since then, Taiki Kudou and Yuu Amano have formed a basketball team with Yuu’s classmate, Tagiru Akashi. One day, Tagiru discovers a strange area called the DigiQuartz, a strange and unstable realm that exists between the human and digital worlds. He then realises that children all over the world have obtained Xros Loaders as well as Digimon partners to participate in a competition called the 'Digimon Hunt'.

Digimon that wander from the digital world into the DigiQuartz are able to feed off of what negative emotions leak in from the human world. This makes the Digimon stronger at the expense of being extremely violent. As a result, the Digimon Hunters must work to stop these Digimon from wreaking havoc in the human world. Joined by the troublemaking Gumdramon, Tagiru aims to become the top Digimon Hunter, all the while unaware of Taiki and Yuu’s previous Digimon connections. Yet a sinister force lurks with the creation of the DigiQuartz, and the young Hunters will soon realize that the Digimon Hunt is much more than a simple game...

Kudou, Taiki Main

Takayama, Minami Japanese

Shoutmon Main

Sakamoto, Chika Japanese

Amano, Yuu Main

Oki, Kanae Japanese

Gumdramon Main

Watanabe, Kumiko Japanese

Akashi, Tagiru Main

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Damemon Main

Kikuchi, Masami Japanese

Yagami, Taichi Supporting

Fujita, Toshiko Japanese

Ishida, Yamato Supporting

Ichijouji, Ken Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Agumon Supporting

Sakamoto, Chika Japanese

Sakurada, Hiroyuki Producer

Kaizawa, Yukio Director

Kakudou, Hiroyuki Episode Director, Storyboard

Sanjou, Riku Script, Series Composition

Reviews

Apr 18, 2021

--Kaori--

Recommended

There will be a spoiler mention later but I'll warn before we get to it. Also, this review can be read without prior knowledge of the Xros Wars (Fusion) series though it being the sequel to the 2nd season of Xros Wars, it will may have spoilers for the last season or two.

So, I'll be honest. I waited years to watch Seasons 1 & 2 of Xros Wars and right as i was about too, a Dub was announced for it, called Digimon Fusion. So, I watched it and it's 2nd season. The 1st season was not that good and got better around the ... half point, but I considered dropping it. Glad I didn't. The 2nd season was awesome and i waited years till recently hoping for a Dub but, the writing was on the wall, a dub was unlikely to happen especially given certain actors would need to be brought back. (In other words, would cost more to Dub) I also think (don't quote me) that Fusion did poorly in the US, which would further explain why Digimon Hunters (Xros Wars Season 3) didn't get a Dub. Maybe it will in the future but I doubt it but love to be wrong.

Anyway, that brings us up to speed with the series, now is Hunters any good? To my delight yes it is, very good in fact. While 2 or 2.5 episodes were stinkers for me, I enjoyed the majority. Does it have problems? Yes, it does, namely 1 thing goes unanswered involving someone who forgot the gang nor was it even brought up and the biggest thing you may've heard is, until the last 3.5 episodes, the plot revolves around the gimmick of hunting Digimon and the real plot is set aside with slight hints in a few episodes here and there (Emphasis on few and slight hints). BUT! Despite this, the "Digital Monster of the week" format worked really well. Some say there wasn't character development but that's not true. Its just harder to notice for some characters unless you're paying attention. Sure its not big or major character development for anyone but its there and each "Digital Monster of the week" episode we see has plenty of life lessons in it and more; over all it was enjoyable and a blast and one of the better Digimon anime out there if you ask me.

Now the good news is, you can watch this by itself, no need to even see the first two seasons of Xros Wars before the third season being Hunters. YES there will be spoilers for the first two season if you do this and YES you will lose out on context and such for some things but the Hunters anime does a good job of mentioning what happened in the last two seasons when it brings up anything/someone from the past two seasons and something that happened in the past. By the way, it'd been maybe 5 years? years either way since I last saw Fusion (Xros Wars) and i finished both seasons and sadly forgot most of it (Can't say those seasons were memorable, but that doesn't mean they're bad and it's prolly the same for Hunters too given the format) yet despite forgetting most of it, I wasn't lost for long as Hunters explained most of what I forgot for the characters and plot it brought up. That said am sure it would've been slightly more enjoyable if I could've remembered the last two seasons better.

Now let me rate the Hunters anime... a solid 7.5 out of 10.0 and I really don't feel it deserves the low score on MAL that it has, especially if you don't worry about the plot too much and just enjoy the "Digital Monster of the week" format the Hunters anime has as you'll get to the plot at the end, until then, enjoy the anime for what it mostly is and yes, there is a reason why it's like this and is explained in the plot towards the end.
Oh and I forgot to mention but I LOVE the OP music and didn't skip it but like once or twice.
Also, out of the new human characters, Airu is my fav~

Now about that spoiler I mentioned, we're coming to it but know what I'm about to say has no bearing on anything I said already nor did it affect the rating as this is concerning the end of the anime plot and the rating stayed the same both before and after those 3.5 episodes. Alright, stop reading now unless you have seen the anime and thanks for reading, hope it helped you and hope you enjoy the anime if you watch it. :)


Ok so, having the old cast (Not all, but a good many) return was pretty awesome, sadly I was already spoiled on this years ago and never forgot it (and would've been reminded even if i had) so i knew it was coming. It was not only awesome to see them again but sweet speculating the plot of what was coming as the Watch Maker and his role is where you start speculating, especially at the point the old cast i mentioned are teased around the half point given what happened up to that point and in the episode. Also, even though I watched the entire Digimon series' anime up to this point English Dubbed, watching the Sub wasn't that bad nor was I confused by any name differences for the old cast. The Japanese Sub was really well done too. Double Kudos to the fact Taiki (Mikey) Kudou's VA is the same VA who plays Conan Edogawa aka Shinichi Kudou in Detective Conan. Guess one truth really does prevail ey you two Kudous? (They both have the same last name and voice in both their anime, coincidence or not? Who can say lol)
I really do hope someday we get a sequel to Hunters as it was clear they may've been setting up for a sequel with how the Hunters anime ended (It has an ending but more can be made given how it ended) and I'd love to see the cast again, especially Airu and her Digimon.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 3, 2020

CataOrShane

Mixed Feelings

Just to be clear: Digimon fan since I was 7 years old. I'm 28 years old now and I've watched (and played) all of the Digimon media available to this point in the series. Also, since this is the last series of a trilogy, my criticism will refer to a lot of the things from the past 2 seasons.

One of my main issues with the Digimon series as a whole is the whole Goggles Kid thing is GOD. It's a concept that got old by the time Digimon 02 was released. This shows a huge amount of lack of creativity and fear of innovation. ... I mean, most Digimons were introduced in past seasons and those that are new either were created by children that watched the shows back when it was airing on japanese TV (I'm not joking) or they're old Digimon with new color schemes. Or... they're just regular stuff with eyes. It's really difficult to take this trilogy serious, starting with the fact that one of the main Digimon is a mechanical piece of poop. Literally. It would make sense if this show was trying to be a parody of the series but it's not. To prove my point, SPOILERS - there's a scene where a Digimon is made of literal food. What in the NANI were they thinking?????????

Similarly to the previous seasons, the story moves at a solid pace but the 4/5 of the series it's just random events happening. It's similar to the pace of Sailor Moon.

I felt that the animation got worse for whatever reason but the sound retained it's quality which is pretty solid.

In terms of content, I felt that they tried to copy Pokemon in the sense that you can catch whatever Digimon you can/want but you may only use one each time. If they're running out of ideas, might as well just stop doing these poor excuses of nostalgia traps.

The characters don't act as normal people would at all and that hurts the immersion aspect. Imagine 50 kids being abducted in a few days and instead of reporting it to teachers, police or any other responsible adults... they rely on other kids. I mean... what the heck????? Not only that but sometimes humans can see Digimon in the Real World and other times not, without any explanation about it. Same lack of logic and continuity in terms of memory loss after each Digimon incident.

Once again there is no balance at all between the main trio, it's always the same Goggles kid, the same Digicross routine and attack pattern. Some rare occasions we got to see new Digifusions and strategies but very rarely.

SPOILERS:
1) in final episodes, we get a treat! We get to see most of the main cast of every main Digimon series giving our current heroes a hand. Except... we don't see everyone and it's all about the same goggle boys and their Agumon or similar Digiboys. And to rub salt on the wound, Masaru which is the worst Digimon protagonist ever gets to show off not once but TWICE. Forget about seeing anybody else but the main Digiboyz in action
2) during this cameo-fest, you see an impossible scenario: Digimon Adventure heroes and Digimon 02 heroes have the same age. The show acknowledges this and states something along the lines of "Taichi is older but for right now accept that we're the same age although it's impossible... just go with it, please". Imagine a SEQUEL basically saying that it's not canon. It's impossible to take this trilogy seriously when it disregards the Digimon timeline.
3) Episode 24 - the real world fused with the Digital one and all humanity's endangered. For a very stupid reason, it's necessary for the remaining hunters to battle each other to decide which one will go 1-on-1 with the final villain. In the hellish scenario where every human could die in the next few minutes, most hunters refuse to fight because "I don't want to see my Digimon get hurt" or "I'm not strong enough, someone else do it". I'm sorry... what have you been doing for the last 20-something episodes???? Is this your first day??????? Not to mention that this trilogy has been feeding us this "friendship is strength typical shounen BS" but at the end it does a U-turn and screw team-work.
5) final fight is a joke with so many twists and turns and who cares anymore because everything leading up to that point is garbage





In conclusion, this season was the worst Digimon series I've ever watched and I'll say it again: I've watched and enjoyed everything up to this trilogy. This poor excuse of a Digimon anime gets a 5/10 from me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 25, 2022

Kezeroth

Not Recommended

This season of Digimon Xros Wars is something that should not exist. This is perhaps one of the worst sequels to any anime that I have ever seen. Not only was Digimon Xros Wars originally a slight bastardization of the original concept of Digimon that spanned from Digimon Adventure to Digimon Adventure 02 to Digimon Tamers to Digimon Frontier to Digimon Savers, this season of Digimon Xros Wars is a bastardization of the previous 2 seasons of Xros Wars.
Story: 4
The story is downright awful when it comes to its concept and its execution. Digimon are back in this alternate realm known as the DigiQuartz and ... are feeding off of negative human emotions. Now, a bunch of random children are being given Fusion Loaders in order to capture these Digimon. I’m sorry, but this does not seem like Digimon Xros Wars Season 3 to me. It seems like a completely different anime that features characters from the original Xros Wars as well as the concept of DigiXros. It is a completely different scene from what we were originally introduced to in the original Xros Wars. Children are collecting Digimon like it’s Pokemon now, what is up with this? That’s the general concept, but now let’s get into the story revolving around our main characters: Tagiru Akashi and Gumdramon. Unlike the other “Hunters” (which is what they are called), he cares for other individuals more and so, he seeks to help those who are being used by the Digimon who’ve entered the DigiQuartz, making him the usual hero at the end of the day. The sequence of each episode is usually: Human gets tricked by Digimon, Tagiru and Gumdramon find out about this and go after the Digimon, Gumdramon Super Digivolves into Arresterdramon, they fight, Tagiru DigiXroses Arresterdramon with one of his other Digimon, and they win and capture the rogue Digimon. It is that same mundane, repetitive process over and over and over for each episode. They all follow the same lazy and uninspiring formula. Of course, Taiki Kudou and Yuu Amano are also there as characters from the previous seasons of Xros Wars to help out as well, but they are treated as side characters more than anything. Now, it is revealed near the end that the DigiQuartz was created by a Digimon to try to take over both the Digital World and the Human World (as per usual), so everybody gears up to fight back, but Tagiru is the hero at the end of the day because he is the Main Character. Everything about the story is so boring and really repetitive. I’m not sure what could even be changed to make it more interesting, even if only slightly.
Characters: 2
We basically have 2 characters because the rest of them are never given the same amount of screentime. Tagiru and Gumdramon are 2 of the worst characters that I have ever seen. They are your average rowdy, hard-headed, loud, obnoxious, and straightforward Shounen characters. They basically have no character development at all and stay the exact same from beginning to end. Sure, Gumdramon is able to mature (very slightly) in order to Super Digivolve, but this practically resulted in no changes to his overall character which is very disappointing. Taiki and Shoutmon were already pretty mature in Season 2 of Xros Wars due to the insanely high stakes back then, but they’ve matured even more in this season. They are basically treated as the GOATS when it comes to Digimon and Hunters. Another character that gets much screen time is Yuu who has long since been the child manipulated by Dark Knightmon back in Xros Wars Season 2. He has matured much, similar to Taiki, but he also is very serious and sometimes comes off sad due to the death of Damemon back in the previous Season, and haven yet seen him once again after the rebirth of the Digital World after Shoutmon becomes king. However, Damemon does come back which is pretty obvious because he and Tuwarmon were in the OP since Episode 1. The other hunters are barely given any screen time and are generalized to be pretty much the prideful, showoff veteran Hunters. As for the villains, the only villains were basically the enemy Digimon, and they were pretty terrible. All of them pretty much were very prideful and manipulative in order to feed off of human negative emotions (which is not something new). As for the final villain Digimon whose name I will not say to avoid spoilers, bro, he was only shown in a single Episode (being the last one), so there isn’t much of him at all. Overall, the Characters are absolutely atrocious. There is no originality, no real development, and the screen time wasn’t shared between all of them enough to warrant them even having their traits be shown.
Digimon (Portrayal): 3
I already dislike Xros Wars for basically getting rid of the whole Evolution Level concept (Egg, Baby, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, Mega, Super Ultimate). This meant that Rookie Digimon were beating up Ultimates, Champions slaying Megas, and all sorts of weirdness that otherwise should not even be possible because the difference in power between each Evolution Level is massive. In Xros Wars Season 2, we were introduced to Super Digivolution. This allowed for a given partner Digimon to Digivolve into what is basically an Ultimate Level Digimon which was the case for OmegaShoutmon and ZekeGreymon. However, this is not the case anymore because we have Gumdramon Super Digivolving into Arresterdramon who is a Champion Level, Dracumon turning into Yaksamon which is also a Champion, and Damemon turning into Tuwarmon which is also a Champion. I understand that Evolution Levels don’t exist in Xros Wars, but seeing “Super Digivolution” not making an “Ultimate Level” Digimon is strange for someone who understands the Evolution Levels. Thus, you still get things like Rookies beating up Ultimates (ex: Shoutmon vs. Sagomon) and Champions beating up Ultimates (ex: Arresterdramon vs. MetalTyrannomon). Another change would be how DigiXros works. You can only have 2 Digimon out at once, so you can basically only Fuse 2 Digimon together. This is a good change as you can’t just go nuts on Fusing Digimon, but it does make larger Fusions harder to access such as the Shoutmon line. Also, let’s talk about “Superior Mode”. The only 2 Superior Modes in the Digimon Universe are Shoutmon X7 Superior Mode and Arresterdramon Superior Mode (not including any Xros Up). When there used to be only 1 Superior Mode which was only possible by Fusing every Digimon in the Digital World with Shoutmon, it seemed sacred and really cool. And then Arresterdramon got it too. Like, Tagiru and Gumdramon barely worked for it. Gumdramon basically matured (very slightly), realizing his past and having been punished by Sanzomon, and was able to “unlock his true potential” and got a Superior Mode. Literal Bruh moment. This Season of Xros Wars just makes the previous ideologies of the concept of Digimon even more worthless, basically bastardizing the original concept and the concepts brought up in the previous 2 seasons of Xros Wars.
Animation/Sound: 5
I have no issue with the music and sounds. It’s the animation that I have an issue with. The closest thing I can compare this steep drop in Animation quality to is Pokemon XY&Z vs. Pokemon Sun & Moon. But even that wasn’t that bad. The difference between the Art and Animation from Digimon Xros Wars Season 2 and Digimon Xros Wars Season 3 is like night and day. The quality just dropped to near rock bottom. It is indescribably bad.
Overall: 3
If you are a fan of Digimon, you can literally pass this up. Xros Wars Seasons 1 and 2 were decent, but this was just plain awful. It reuses the same formula for every episode while basically giving the Main Characters no development over the course of this 25 Episode anime. If you do want to know what happens after Season 2 of Xros Wars, you could watch this, but I expect you to be sorely disappointed because even the recurring characters are portrayed terribly. There is a single memorable part of this anime which was the fact that characters from the other Digimon timelines make a cameo due to plot reasons. I feel like it was put there for fanservice reasons only because of how somewhat minor it is, but it is definitely cool seeing Taichi, Daisuke, Tatsuya, Takuya, and Daimon standing side by side. I sincerely do not recommend watching this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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